Book Description
This delightful companion volume to Arty Cats offers wonderfully witty stories of the pups that impassioned and inspired the masterpieces of the world's greatest painters.

A little-known fact about Whistler's Mother, for example: the painter actually captured his mum in the midst of a game of fetch with her beloved Dalmatian, Sparky. What motivated Edvard Munch's Jealousy? The touching tale of a loyal old hound replaced by the gift of a young puppy. And, for those wondering about the unusual perspective of Eduard Manet's Un Bar Aux Folies-Bergere, here, at last, is the explanation: the Frenchman's little bull dog, Harry.

In this clever parody of some of history's most famous images, readers meet dogs of all breeds (and all manner of breeding) that stole the hearts, captivated the models, and sometime saved the reputations of their masters. From formal portraits to Pop Art, Impressionists to Expressionists, these whimsical works prove that dog is truly art's best friend.

Book Description
Continuously in print for more than 20 years, Abrams' Masters of Art series has always been known for its exceptional quality and value. Now these classic volumes devoted to the lives and works of the world's great painters have been newly redesigned and released in paperback for the first time. The comprehensive texts, written by distinguished art historians, provide incisive and informative portraits of the artists and perceptive commentaries on their works and achievements. Each book features 40 full-page, full-color plates accompanied by commentary on the facing page. Numerous black-and-white illustrations supplement the text.

Book Description
Marc Chagall (1887-1985) epitomized the "painter as poet" with work that was steeped in mythology and mysticism, portraying colorful dreams and folktales deeply rooted in his Russian Jewish origins. No 20th-century artist approached him in popularity, and the full range of his work is on display in this richly illustrated Spanish-language entry in the Basic Art series celebrating major artists.

Book Description
Crossing Over, the latest of three collaborations between scholar Stephen Jay Gould and artist Rosamond Wolff Purcell, brings together thought-provoking essays and uncannily beautiful photographs to disprove the popular notion that art and science exist in an antagonistic relationship. The essays and photographs collected here present art and science in conversation, rather than in opposition. As Gould writes in his preface, although the two disciplines may usually communicate in different dialects, when juxtaposed they strikingly reflect upon and enhance one another. Working together, Purcell's photographs and Gould's scientific musings speak to us about ourselves and our world in a hybrid language richer than either could command on its own.

In an essay on individuality, for instance, Gould looks through the lens of evolutionary theory to address the controversial issue of cloning and the often misguided fears it evokes. As a society that exalts the concept of the individual, Gould argues, we sometimes fail to recognize that clones walk among us. Identical twins represent "the greatest of all challenges to our concept of individuality." Rosamond Purcell's photograph depicting the famous Siamese conjoined twins Eng and Chang conveys an eerie feeling that cannot be captured in words.

Through its unique combination of words and photographs, Crossing Over prompts us to ponder not only the basis of the false dichotomy between art and science, but also the distinction of mind and nature, and of all humanly imposed categories of order. Gould and Purcell's work convinces the reader that a provocative interplay between art and science is not only possible, but inevitable and necessary as well.

Book Description
Gustav Klimt's unique style combines sensuality, realism, and spirituality to make his work recognizable and among the most popular in the history of art. His primary focus on women has led to the most ethereal portraits and murals ever produced. The text explores Vienna at the turn of the century and Klimt's importance in its society and within the context of the modern art movement. 60 + color illustrations, faithfully reproduced.

Product Description
History of Art introduces a new, chronological way of examining the major art movements of the Western world over the last two thousand years. It is the only book to examine the roots of art in prehistory and provide important examples of work from 240 leading artists in terms of their school, period, technique, and vision. No other history of art book shows the story of Western art unfolding like this. It is truly innovative in its approach as it allows the reader to see the development within specific artistic movements chronologically. In addition, the book provides accessible text detailing the significance of the featured artists and images, and can be used as a valued source book of some of the most famous images in Western art. Each artist is represented by a major work, which is accompanied by text explaining their impact on the development of Western art, as well as giving a brief history of their life and career.

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Book Description
The quintessential "Renaissance man," Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) is still recognized today for his accomplishments in science, architecture, and philosophy, as well as his artistic masterworks. Full-color reproductions and thorough text provide a quick yet solid introduction to this master.

Book Description
These biographies of the great quattrocento artists have long been considered among the most important of contemporary sources on Italian Renaissance art. Vasari, who invented the term "Renaissance," was the first to outline the influential theory of Renaissance art that traces a progression
through Giotto, Brunelleschi, and finally the titanic figures of Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, and Raphael. This new translation, specially commissioned for the World's Classics series, contains thirty-six of the most important lives and is fully annotated.

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A hardcover collection formerly published in two volumes: The Works 1890 - 1936, and The Works 1937 - 1973.

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Amazon.com
Darian Leader is one of the finest popular writers using the psychoanalytical insights of Freud and Lacan to understand the contemporary state of love, life, and letters. In Stealing the Mona Lisa he turns his attentions to art. The book is not really about the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. For Leader, the story of the theft provides a leitmotif for his elegant discussion of why we find art so seductive, but ultimately frustrating and perhaps disappointing. Leader begins by asking if "the story of the 'Mona Lisa's' disappearance can tell us something about art and why we look at it." He is fascinated by the fact that the painting's absence drew crowds, and asks, "might this give us a clue as to why we look at visual art? Are we looking for something that we have lost?"

This is an elegant and witty book that uses the insights of Freud and primarily Lacan to offer a range of amusing but often striking accounts of why we look at art, the importance of the gaze and the look, the significance of emptiness and incompleteness in art, and why artists create what appear to many to be incomprehensible works. Erudite and wide-ranging, Leader moves from a comparison of Leonardo's painted smile to a symbolic penis, to the artist Yinka Shonibare's observation that painting "was a way of staying out of hospital," which leads Leader to conclude that "the only people who don't sublimate are artists." Stealing the Mona Lisa doesn't always convince, but Leader's ability to explain complex theoretical ideas without oversimplification makes this a fascinating psychoanalytical version of John Berger's classic Ways of Seeing. For Leader, the point is to understand what art stops us seeing. --Jerry Brotton

Book Description
Generously illustrated with over 1,370 photographs, architectural plans, and color maps, this highly regarded survey encompasses the arts of Asia, Africa, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas—covering painting, mosaic, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, architecture and photography, and ranging from a statuette carved in central Europe some 30,000 years ago to video art of the 1990s. It delves into the purpose and meaning of art to show readers how art can deepen our self-knowledge, sharpen our awareness of our own and other religious beliefs, and enlarge our understanding of alternative ways of life. Divides material into five parts (Foundations of Art, Art and the World Religions, Sacred and Secular Art, The Making of the Modern World, and Twentieth-Century Art), with discussions on late Gothic art; 17th century Dutch landscape painting; Native American art; Far Eastern and African art; photography; women in art, and much more. Integrates boxes throughout that reflect on the full spectrum of factors which have conditioned artistic production at different times and in different parts of the world. Contains many new illustrations and photos, including the paintings in the Chauvet Cave in south-west France, and the late second-millennium BC figurative sculptures found at Sanxindui, China. All chapters include a handy timechart for easy reference. For art historians.